Oxford English Dictionary

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Some American Slang

We use it with friends, family, and in informal situations. It's fun in the right situation.

Let's learn some American slang.

The first one is "BFF". This has become popular in the last few years. It means "best friend forever."

Who's your BFF? As some of you know, mine is Vickie. We've been BFF's since we were fifteen years old.

Next - Two teenage boys are walking on the street. They see some people coming toward them, looking angry. One boy could say to the other, "Don't worry. I have your back."It means that he'll protect him. It has the feeling that he'll do whatever is necessary, even if he gets hurt himself.

Next -- "to dis someone". Have you ever heard this? It means "to be disrespectful to someone". If we look at "disrespectful" we can see "dis" as a prefix. The slang word is the prefix.

Has anyone ever dissed you?

The next slang expression is "to be hot." Have you ever heard it before? It means "to be very sexy and good looking."

Practice sentence: Who's the hottest person you know?

The next slang expression is used to describe something that's "really great; fantastic. It's "off the hook."

Example:
That party was off the hook.

What's the last thing you experienced that was off the hook?
Structure (Subject) was off the hook.

The last one means the opposite. It's "ridiculous." The dictionary meaning of "ridiculous" is "stupid." As a slang expression, "ridiculous" means the opposite. It means "fantastic" when you're using it as a slang expression.